Storage system and control method of the same

• US 7,451,284 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2004
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Yamagami, Kenji, Araki, Masanori
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cygiel; Gary W
• Application Number:
  US11/003,075
• Publication Number:
  US 20060080503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,440 Days
• Field of Search: 711/162, 711/114
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

The invention provides a storage system which can estimate a necessary capacity at the time of acquiring a snap shot copy without actually sampling the snap shot copy, and a control method of the same. In a storage system, a disk control unit monitors a write instruction from a host machine for a fixed period, and calculates a capacity necessary at the time of a snap shot, on the basis of the monitored information for the fixed period, in the case of receiving an instruction of calculating the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot which makes it possible to refer to the data at a certain time point within a disk unit.

Claims

1. A storage system provided with a storage control unit and a disk unit comprised of a plurality of physical storage devices, wherein the storage control unit comprises:

a data transfer control unit controlling a data transfer with respect to a host machine and the disk unit;

a cache memory temporarily storing the data; and

a shared memory in which a configuration information of the storage system is stored, and

wherein, in response to receiving an instruction to calculate a capacity necessary to acquire a snap shot which makes it possible to refer to the data within the disk unit at a certain time point, a monitoring interval being specified at the time the instruction is received, the storage control unit monitors a write instruction from the host machine for a predetermined period determined in accordance with the monitoring interval, and thereafter calculates the capacity necessary at the time of the snap shot, on the basis of the write requests monitored during the predetermined period,

wherein the monitoring interval corresponds to a single snapshot generation and the predetermined period includes two or more snapshot generations, and

wherein the storage control unit provides an operation plan of the snap shot including the calculation result of the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot, said operation plan corresponding to the instruction to calculate and being displayed on the host machine or a service processor connected to the storage system and indicating whether a current storage capacity of the storage system is available to acquire the snap shot.

2. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein when calculating the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot, the storage control unit counts a number of an updated unit region within the disk unit on the basis of a write instruction from the host machine for the predetermined period, and calculates the capacity necessary at the time of the snap shot on the basis of the count number and the capacity of the unit region.

3. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the storage control unit manages information of the snap shot of a plurality of generations, and calculates a capacity considering a relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations, in the case of calculating the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot.

4. The storage system according to claim 3, wherein the storage control unit has a snap shot table managing information of a snap shot volume in which the snap shot of the plurality of generations is stored, and manages a relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations on the basis of the snap shot table.

5. The storage system according to claim 4, wherein the storage control unit manages overlapping data in the snap shot of the plurality of generations in a sharing manner at the time of managing the relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations.

6. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the storage control unit displays a calculation result of the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot on the host machine or a service processor connected to the storage system.

7. The storage system according to claim 1, wherein the operation plan of the snap shot comprises a snap shot capacity necessary for each of a plurality of logical units corresponding to said physical storage devices, and wherein the snap shot capacity for each of said logical units is displayed on the host machine or service processor.

8. The storage system according to claim 1 wherein the operation plan comprises the capacity necessary to perform the snapshot, a number of snapshot generations monitored, and a number of acquirable snapshot generations.

22. The control method of a storage system according to claim 2, wherein the overlapping data in the snap shot of the plurality of generations in a sharing manner is managed at the time of managing the relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations.

9. A storage system provided with a storage control unit and a disk unit, wherein the storage control unit comprises:

a data transfer control unit controlling a data transfer with respect to a host machine and the disk unit;

a cache memory temporarily storing the data; and

a shared memory in which a configuration information of the storage system is stored wherein said disk unit comprises a primary volume and a secondary volume, and

wherein, in response to receiving an instruction to calculate a capacity necessary to acquire a snapshot which makes it possible to refer to the data within the disk unit at a certain time point, a monitoring interval being specified at the time the instruction is received, the storage control unit updates a difference bitmap on the basis of write instructions from the host machine over a predetermined period determined in accordance with monitoring interval and calculates the capacity necessary to acquire the snap shot without executing the snap shot copy operation,

wherein the monitoring interval corresponds to a single snapshot generation and the predetermined period includes two or more snapshot generations.

wherein the storage control unit provides an operation plan of the snap shot on the basis of the calculation result of the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot, said operation plan corresponding to the instruction to calculate and being displayed on the host machine or a service processor connected to the storage system and indicating whether a current storage capacity of the storage system is available to acquire the snap shot, and

wherein if the instruction to calculate the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring a snap shot which makes it possible to refer to the data at a certain time point within the disk unit is not received, the storage control unit executes a snapshot copy to the snap shot volume without first performing a capacity calculation.

10. The storage system according to claim 9, wherein when calculating the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot, the storage control unit acquires information of the difference bit map updated by the write instruction from the host machine for the predetermined period, and calculates the capacity necessary at the time of the snap shot on the basis of the information of the updated bit number and the capacity of the unit region managed by the difference bit map.

11. The storage system according to claim 9, wherein when calculating the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot, the storage control unit counts information of a bit off from the difference bit map updated on the basis of a write instruction from the host machine for the predetermined period, and calculates the capacity necessary at the time of the snap shot on the basis of the information of the count number and the capacity of the unit region managed by the difference bit map.

12. The storage system according to claim 9, wherein the storage control unit manages information of the snap shot of a plurality of generations, and calculates the capacity considering a relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations, in the case of calculating the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot.

13. The storage system according to claim 12, wherein the storage control unit has a snap shot table managing information of a snap shot volume in which the snap shot of the plurality of generations is stored, and manages a relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations on the basis of the snap shot table.

14. The storage system according to claim 13, wherein the storage control unit manages overlapping data in the snap shot of the plurality of generations in a sharing manner at the time of managing the relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations.

15. The storage system according to claim 9, wherein the storage control unit displays a calculation result of the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot on the host machine or a service processor connected to the storage system.

16. The storage system according to claim 9, wherein the operation plan of the snap shot comprises a snap shot capacity necessary for each of a plurality of logical units, and wherein the snap shot capacity for each of said logical units is displayed on the host machine or service processor.

17. The storage system according to claim 9 wherein the operation plan comprises the capacity necessary to perform the snapshot, a number of snapshot generations monitored, and a number of acquirable snapshot generations.

18. A control method of a storage system provided with a storage control unit comprised of a data transfer control unit controlling a data transfer with respect to a host machine and a disk unit, a cache memory temporarily storing the data, and a shared memory in which a configuration information of the storage system is stored and with a disk unit comprised of a plurality of physical storage devices,

wherein, in response to receiving an instruction to calculate a capacity necessary to acquire a snap shot which makes it possible to refer to the data at a certain time point within the disk unit, a monitoring interval being specified at the time the instruction is received, a write instruction from the host machine is monitored for a predetermined period determined in accordance with the monitoring interval, and thereafter the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot is calculated on the basis of the write requests monitored during the predetermined period, and wherein the monitoring interval corresponds to a single snapshot generation and the predetermined period includes two or more snapshot generations.

19. The control method of a storage system according to claim 18, wherein when calculating the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot, a number of an updated unit region within the disk unit is counted on the basis of a write instruction from the host machine for the predetermined period, and the capacity necessary at the time of the snap shot is calculated on the basis of the count number and the capacity of the unit region.

20. The control method of a storage system according to claim 18, wherein an information of the snap shot of a plurality of generations is managed, and a capacity considering a relation of the snap shot of the plurality of generations is calculated when calculating the capacity necessary at the time of the snap shot.

21. The control method of a storage system according to claim 20, wherein a snap shot table for managing information of a snap shot volume in which the snap shot of the plurality of generations is stored is used, and a relation of the snap shot of the plurality of snap shot is managed on the basis of the snap shot table.

23. The control method of a storage system according to claim 18, wherein an operation plan of the snap shot is provided on the basis of the calculation result of the capacity necessary at the time of acquiring the snap shot, wherein said operation plan comprises a snap shot capacity necessary for each of a plurality of logical units corresponding to said physical storage devices, and wherein the snap shot capacity for each of said logical units is displayed on the host machine or at a service processor.

24. The storage system according to claim 18 wherein the operation plan comprises the capacity necessary to perform the snapshot, a number of snapshot generations monitored, and a number of acquirable snapshot generations.